Tuesday Magic Item – Pretender’s Amulet

11 June, 2013

When the news arrived that the lost heir of the Oaken Throne of Cavarai had been found, everyone was overjoyed. His ship had been lost in a storm almost ten years ago but it seems the young man survived and was taken as a slave by the Yraphan corsairs. Naturally, he was welcomed back by his family.

Something about him never sat right with me, I could not tell you what it was, but he made me uneasy. And I do not think I was the only one who was relieved when he was killed in that hunting accident.

Pretender’s Amulet

These amulets are exceedingly rare to the point of being rumors, be if such did exist, the very act of creating one would be considered treasonous in many lands. They are usually simple amulets, often decorated with the coat of arms of ancient royalty. A hidden catch reveals a thin layer of gold, smeared with blood if the amulet’s primary power has been activated.

In its basic form, it is simply provides its wearer with a +1 natural armor bonus and a +1 enhancement bonus to Diplomacy checks.

To activate its primary power, the owner must first open the hidden compartment and apply three drops of blood, no more than an hour old, of the ruling line of the lands they are currently in. Once that is done, the amulet provides the following:

• The wearer’s appearance is subtly altered to more closely resemble what people expect members of the ruling line to look like.
• +5 enhancement bonus to Bluff, Diplomacy and Knowledge (nobility) checks.
• +4 enhancement bonus to Charisma, raised to +6 in places associated with the ruling bloodline.
• Detects to all magic as part of the ruling bloodline. Magic attempting to force them to tell the truth will also confirm that they are part of the ruling line. Only divine divination will reveal the deception and even then only if the spell used is 7th level or higher otherwise the reply will be noncommital.

These effects persist for 1d6+4 minutes after the amulet is taken off, as long as it has been worn continuously for at least a day before hand. However, the primary power only works for the person who applied the blood to the amulet.